Passes & Canyons Blog

I don’t have the energy to do anything active so when I’m not sleeping–which I do a lot of–I have a lot of time to think. Right now I’m thinking I lead a charmed life.

In the past year and a half I’ve had two vehicles totaled, both entirely due to somebody else. Some people might look at that and say their life was cursed but I don’t see it that way.

In the first instance some guy with his face buried in his phone blew through a red light and hit me broadside, demolishing my car. I came out of that totally unscratched. Not the slightest injury.

In this second instance a drunk ran into me head-on, and this time I suffered severe injuries. But nothing that happened to me is anything from which I will not recover. It will take time, and it is painful, but I will recover completely and be as good as new.

I’ve always tended to think of head-on crashes as the worst kind but I no longer think this. That guy hit me head on and my motorcycle took the greatest brunt of the force. It gave its life to save mine. Imagine how different it would be if he had hit me broadside, as the other guy did. For certain my leg would be crushed and I might easily have been crippled for life. That’s if I didn’t lose the leg entirely. I’ve known two people who have lost legs in motorcycle crashes.

And then there’s the vehicles. I really liked my car, and it didn’t have a lot of miles on it so I was planning to drive it for a long time to come. But you know what? I like the car I got to replace it even more. I really, really like my current car. Now, it cost me all the insurance money plus $10,000 cash to get the new one and I’m not thrilled about that, but it’s only money. My health and well-being count more than the money.

With the bike, this was a really special bike. That CB750 was the first bike I ever owned and I have owned it and ridden it for 40 years. I loved that bike. But you know, it was an old bike and old technology. There were a few things I really honestly did not love about the bike. One was removing the seat, which took a wrench, finesse, and about five to ten minutes. Then the reverse to get it back on.

Another was the way it smoked. I thought a couple times I had resolved that issue but I had not. It still smoked like crazy when I started it up and I would stand there embarrassed hoping none of my neighbors was looking out their window at how I was turning all the air in the neighborhood blue.

I intended twice to just spend whatever money it took to fix this problem but when it finally came out that to do so would cost at least $3,500, and probably more, I decided to do what my mechanic had been saying all along: just live with it. And of course, now I’m so glad I did not spend that money.

Unlike with the car, I don’t want to just absorb all this loss. I do want some sort of recompense and with whatever money I can get for it I will buy a new bike and a lot of new, really good (read: really expensive) protective gear.

Of course, through all of this my wife has been there like a rock beside me, and that most of all is why I truly believe I lead a charmed life.

Biker Quote for Today

Graveyards are filled with people who “had the right-of-way!”

It seems to be a general rule that connecting helmet communicators is not easy. Judy and I have owned a couple sets and neither has been something you just do and that’s that. It’s always a matter of relearning how it’s done and then making more than one attempt to do so until you get it right.

In preparation for this recent RMMRC California trip I bought a new communicator, a Cardo, because that’s what all the other guys had and that would enable me to hook in with the group. It was agreed that on departure date we would get together earlier to get me paired in. What could go wrong?

In a group like this someone needs to be the main guy and the main guy here was Alan. Everyone else already was hooked in.

So Alan pulled out his phone, fired up the app, and opened the group. I installed the app on my phone–though that is not supposed to be necessary–and we tried following the steps as spelled out. No dice. We tried again. I shut my phone completely off and then booted up, with hopes that now everything would be fully settled and in order. Still no dice.

Was it a problem with my communicator? It was brand new and had never been used. They do manufacture lemons now and then, where something doesn’t work right out of the box. I tried creating a group myself and paired one of the guys in with me. That worked. So it’s not a problem with my unit.

I can’t remember what else we tried but nothing worked. Fine, we’ll give up for now and then tonight at the motel in Fruita we’ll try again.

So we got to Fruita and we’re sitting around in our rooms with our helmets on. Surely between the bunch of us we can figure this out. The Cardo can link together up to–I think–19 units. We were only trying to get 5 on one link.

Insanity is reputedly doing the same thing over and over expecting different results and we did the insanity thing for a while. There was no way, apparently, that I was ever going to get linked in to this group. OK, let’s take a different approach. Alan, create a new group and then link us all in on that group. Delete the old one.

And you know what? It worked. Finally. It still wasn’t necessarily working great until we figured out that I needed to move my microphone boom closer to my mouth. Once I did that they could hear me and I could hear them. Great. We’re ready to go.

So the next day we took off and now my concern was, was I going to find myself feeling invaded by hearing everything everyone had to say all day? I’m used to the solitude of being in my own head even when in a group of riders. Would I miss that solitude. Sure I could turn the Cardo off but that would defeat the whole purpose of having it.

It was OK. I even did a bit of the talking because I had been all these places we were going through this day and I had information to share.

Then the following morning the Cardo came in handy, too, as I sprawled across my gas tank telling the guys “I can’t do this. I’m really sick.” Dave replied that “Yeah, if it makes you feel any better, you look lousy, too.”

I just hope next time I try to use this thing it goes a lot more smoothly.

Biker Quote for Today

Faster . . . sixty, seventy . . . the engine growls, and the wind is now howling in my face trying to rip me off the back of the bike. But to outrun the demons I keep pushing it into fifth . . . seventy-five, eighty-five, ninety . . . and now I’ve got a white-knuckled grip on the handlebars as they vibrate up my arms and I tuck my head down for speed.

Man, you think it’s going to be so simple and then it’s not.

I concluded I ought to get a new front tire put on my V-Strom before I leave on this California trip in a couple weeks, so I checked around.

Performance Cycle sells tires but they only mount them if you bring the wheel in off the bike. Of course I could get a tire there and take it to One Down Four Up to be mounted but that would require an appointment. I checked with Fay Myers and they sell tires and their website said you could come in and mounting would be first come, first served. So I decided I would do that on Tuesday.

Just to be sure I called on Tuesday morning. Following the phone tree I headed to service and . . . got disconnected. I called back, same phone tree, and . . . disconnected. Dang.

So I called again and this time I asked for parts. I got to parts and inquired about a tire, which they had, and the guy told me the price. Quite a bit higher than I expected but oh well. Then he took my name and number and said he would have service call me.

They called soon after and it turns out the website is technically correct but a bit incomplete. On Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday you need an appointment to have a tire mounted and you have to leave the bike there. No mount while you wait option. You can come in on Friday or Saturday and it’s first come first served, mount while you wait. OK, I’ll probably see you on Friday morning early.

Probably. If it’s going to be other than I expected let’s see if there is a better way, particularly since the price is unexpectedly high.

I called Performance to see what tires they had at what prices. I figured then to call One Down Four Up and see about getting the bike in to have the work done while I wait.

I called Performance, the phone rang and was picked up with a quick “Please hold.” I then sat there for 10 minutes or so listening to the list of things Performance offers and the assurance that “A fellow rider will be with you shortly.” Now and then that would be interrupted by ringing, which would only be replaced with the spiel again. I hung up.

I considered calling One Down Four Up and asking when they could get me in but I hesitated to make an appointment until I was sure I would want to get the tire from Performance. So I called Performance again.

This time I got right through. And despite what their promotional spiel says, the prices they were asking for all but one of the tires we discussed were higher than what Fay Myers had quoted me. The one cheaper one was a Shinko, which I have run before. Because this is an 80-20 street/offroad tire and I pretty much just ride on the street this tire has not worn well for me.

Bottom line, I decided I’ll just run over to Fay Myers Friday morning. I’ll need to adjust my schedule to make it work but oh well. Sure would have been nice if I could have done this Tuesday morning.

Biker Quote for Today

My motorcycle takes me places my car never will.

Judy and I have a couple Sena communicators we use when we ride together but these guys I’m going on this trip with soon all have Cardos. My choice was to be the one not linked together or go get a Cardo. I got a Cardo.

We had a pre-ride get-together the other day to make plans and for those with Cardos to get all synced up. I didn’t have mine yet but immediately afterward I went to Performance Cycle and got one. I had the guy install it for me, which was a really good thing because he–with all his experience–did not find it an easy job.

I have two helmets these days, one a good Shoei that has the Sena in it. The other is kind of a cheapie I bought mid-trip when the RMMRC did its Great River Road trip in 2022. If I had other options this might not be the helmet I would choose to put the communicator in but it was what I had so I did. So now I have two helmets, one with the Sena, the other with the Cardo, and I’ll decide which helmet to wear at least sometimes by who I’ll be riding with.

I’m assuming having this communicator will be a good thing. Dave said it would be because he once did a ride in Spain where everyone else was linked but he was not. He said it was terrible. They’d all do something they had discussed and he’d be sitting there wondering . . . What? He said the other guys always forgot he was not in on their conversations.

What I hope does not happen is that there is this constant chatter that disturbs my solitude. I like riding alone and when I’m riding with other people I like the solitude of the ride where it’s just you. I hope turning this thing on and off is easy because I may do that a lot. Or maybe just turning the volume down will suffice. But then they may decide something and I won’t hear it and I’ll be the one saying “What?”.

I’m eager to see how this thing works and how well. From what people say, a lot of these guys in the RMMRC have tried Sena and have not been happy with them, which is why they switched to Cardo. And in the meantime, a box of Sena equipment that was no longer wanted has made it to me, which could be a good thing if the ones Judy and I have ever crap out. I try to keep them fresh by plugging them in every couple months, rather than letting the batteries drain dead, but who knows. Of course, the batteries in these ones I just got are probably dead and may not work all that well. Who knows.

Anyway, you can bet I’ll report here on how this thing works on this trip. Stay tuned.

Biker Quote for Today

A motorcycle can sing on the streets of a city.

You’ve seen them, I know. The guys with leather vests and jackets festooned with pins and patches. Biker paraphernalia. Some guys just love that stuff.

To each his own, I guess. I’m not that kind of guy. But I am a biker, so this stuff inevitably comes my way nevertheless.

That photo above is all the stuff I could find to pull out and display. There’s an AMA Life Member patch, an ABATE of Colorado District 10 (defunct) patch, a Ride with the 40 patch from when that crew came through some years ago, and an OFMC patch. I do actually have an OFMC patch on one of my leather jackets. That’s the only patch I have on anything.

Of course there are the brass nuts from attending ABATE’s Last Brass Monkey Run each December 31. I only found six but I’m sure I have more somewhere.

Then there are the pins. Time was when every year I would receive a pin each from ABATE and the AMA tallying my years of membership. Finally people got wise at both organizations and asked “Do you wish to receive a pin each year?” I said no. Great idea. Save yourselves money and save me accumulating junk I don’t want.

Some people really get into this stuff, I know. That’s great. For you. I’ll pass, thanks.

Biker Quote for Today

Weekend forecast: Motorcycling with no chance of house cleaning or cooking.

About five minutes before I got home on Thursday some guy on a GS ruined the lede I had composed for this blog post. I’m always playing with words in my head when I’m riding so that when the time comes to write about the ride it usually just flows because it’s already half written.

What I intended to lead with was: One telling thing about my ride on Thursday was that I didn’t see one single other rider. Not one. It was cold.

But there I was at Boston and Arapahoe and this guy on a GS goes by. Oh well.

It was cold. Fortunately, for once I was prepared. I wore my riding pants with my heaviest long underwear, my electric vest, and my heated gloves. I almost blew it with the gloves. I figured my winter gloves would be enough but then I figured I might as well bring the heated ones along in the tank bag. Then I had a better thought and put them on right at the start, set to the lowest setting. By the time I came home I was no longer on the lowest setting so you can imagine how cold my hands would have been without the heat.

With all this gear, however, it was a very comfortable ride. It was sunny most of the time and that makes a big difference.

I knew I wanted to be out at least an hour because I needed 46 miles on the Honda to at least get more miles on it this year than last. The time is past to ride in the mountains this year so I headed for the prairie.

Out Hampden all the way till it ends at Gun Club Road and I turned south. I wanted to get onto Smoky Hill Road and then it was my intent to take that series of roads south to where I would get to CO 86 coming west from Elizabeth, then take it west to Franktown. I didn’t have plans beyond Franktown.

But out in that area there are a lot of roads and I don’t get down that way particularly often, so I sometimes am not sure which road is going to come out where. I was wrong this time. I rode Smoky Hill to where it ends with a right turn and becomes Delbert Road. This is out on the current fringes of the city, where the housing developments finally end, and I always like to see just how much more there is out there than the last time I was there. There’s always more.

Delbert ends with a T intersection at Singing Hills Road and at first I thought I was on CO 86 but I soon saw that I was wrong. Oh yeah, I know where this goes. It feeds into Hilltop Road and that leads you back to Parker Road. OK, fine. Not what I planned but it will do.

Actually, looking at the map now I see that a left turn onto Hilltop, rather than the right I took, would have gotten me onto Flintwood Road and that was the one I had been looking for. I’m hoping these details stick better in my brain now.

Now I was headed northwest on Hilltop and crossed the intersection with Parker onto Hess Road. Hess Road bends around and heads south, coming out at I-25 down by Castle Pines. As I like to do there, I got on the frontage road, not the slab, and took that north to Ridgegate Parkway, jogged east on Ridgegate to South Peoria, crossed E-470 and turned left to loop around the south end of Centennial Airport. Then north on Inverness Drive West to Clinton, the jog over to Boston, and a stop at the light at Arapahoe. And there goes that guy on the GS.

Then just north to home. I more than got in my 46 miles and I had a really nice ride. Thank goodness for electrics.

Biker Quote for Today

You might be a Yuppie biker if your jeans are clean; in fact, if any spot on you is clean.